scholarly journals The Horseshoe Canyon Formation in southern Alberta: surface and subsurface stratigraphic architecture, sedimentology, and resource potential

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
A P Hamblin
Keyword(s):  
Resource Potential ◽  
Stratigraphic Architecture ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation

A history of Albertosaurus discoveries in Alberta, CanadaThis article is one of a series of papers published in this Special Issue on the theme Albertosaurus.

2010 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1197-1211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren H. Tanke ◽  
Philip J. Currie
Keyword(s):  
New Genus ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Considerable Confusion ◽  
Taxonomic Uncertainty ◽  
History Of ◽  
Information Politics ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation

After many years of taxonomic uncertainty, Albertosaurus was established as a new genus in 1905, the year Alberta became a province of Canada. Gorgosaurus is a closely related tyrannosaurid from the Judithian beds of southern Alberta that was subsequently synonymized with Albertosaurus. Although most researchers consider the genera as distinct, there has been considerable confusion over the temporal and geographic range of Albertosaurus. Albertosaurus sarcophagus is only known from 13 skulls and (or) skeletons of varying completeness, and one (possibly two) bonebeds, all from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Campanian–Maastrichtian) of Alberta. Many of the major Albertosaurus specimens are scientifically compromised due to poor collection techniques, incomplete locality and stratigraphic information, politics, vandalism, accidents, gunplay, and landowner issues. The background of each specimen is discussed to eliminate some of the sources of confusion and to document how much of each specimen is preserved.

Taphonomy of the Danek Bonebed: a monodominant Edmontosaurus (Hadrosauridae) bonebed from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Alberta

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 992-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil R. Bell ◽  
Nicolás E. Campione
Keyword(s):  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Bite Marks ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Bone Fragments ◽  
Faunal Diversity ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation

The Danek Bonebed (Horsethief Member, Horseshoe Canyon Formation, Late Campanian) is dominated by the remains of at least 12 Edmontosaurus regalis. Skeletal remains of a tyrannosaurid and ceratopsid are also known. The predominantly disarticulated remains were interred on a periodically inundated floodplain and, although the cause of death is unknown, a sudden, catastrophic death explains the demographic spread, faunal diversity, rare greenstick fractures, and homogeneous weathering/abrasion categories of the assemblage. The Danek Bonebed shares a similar taphonomic signature to the Liscomb Bonebed (Prince Creek Formation, Alaska), but it is unique among all other described hadrosaurid bonebeds in the unusually high proportion of bite-marked bones (∼30%), suggesting scavenging played a major role in the reworking of the assemblage. The highest frequency of bite marks is found on small, often unidentifiable (and commonly ignored) bone fragments, underscoring the role that such fragments can play in taphonomic interpretation. Finally, the recognition of E. regalis from central Alberta is an important datum linking contemporaneous occurrences in southern Alberta with slightly older records of this species from the Wapiti Formation in northwestern Alberta.

High-precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS dating and chronostratigraphy of the dinosaur-rich Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Upper Cretaceous, Campanian–Maastrichtian), Red Deer River valley, Alberta, Canada

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (10) ◽  
pp. 1220-1237 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Eberth ◽  
Sandra L. Kamo
Keyword(s):  
High Precision ◽  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Red Deer ◽  
Alluvial Plain ◽  
Type Area ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Dinosaur Evolution ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation ◽  
Upper Campanian

The non-marine Horseshoe Canyon Formation (HCFm, southern Alberta) yields taxonomically diverse, late Campanian to middle Maastrichtian dinosaur assemblages that play a central role in documenting dinosaur evolution, paleoecology, and paleobiogeography leading up to the end-Cretaceous extinction. Here, we present high-precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS ages and the first calibrated chronostratigraphy for the HCFm using zircon grains from (1) four HCFm bentonites distributed through 129 m of section, (2) one bentonite from the underlying Bearpaw Formation, and (3) a bentonite from the overlying Battle Formation that we dated previously. In its type area, the HCFm ranges in age from 73.1–68.0 Ma. Significant paleoenvironmental and climatic changes are recorded in the formation, including (1) a transition from a warm-and-wet deltaic setting to a cooler, seasonally wet-dry coastal plain at 71.5 Ma, (2) maximum transgression of the Drumheller Marine Tongue at 70.896 ± 0.048 Ma, and (3) transition to a warm-wet alluvial plain at 69.6 Ma. The HCFm’s three mega-herbivore dinosaur assemblage zones track these changes and are calibrated as follows: Edmontosaurus regalis – Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis zone, 73.1–71.5 Ma; Hypacrosaurus altispinus – Saurolophus osborni zone, 71.5–69.6 Ma; and Eotriceratops xerinsularis zone, 69.6–68.2 Ma. The Albertosaurus Bonebed — a monodominant assemblage of tyrannosaurids in the Tolman Member — is assessed an age of 70.1 Ma. The unusual triceratopsin, Eotriceratops xerinsularis, from the Carbon Member, is assessed an age of 68.8 Ma. This chronostratigraphy is useful for refining correlations with dinosaur-bearing upper Campanian–middle Maastrichtian units in Alberta and elsewhere in North America.

Implications of finding a ceratopsian horncore in the Danek bonebed

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 1034-1038 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Currie ◽  
Eva B. Koppelhus
Keyword(s):  
Mature Animal ◽  
Large Size ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation

In connection with the excavation of the Danek Bonebed in 2011, a half-metre long, well preserved right ceratopsian orbital horncore was recovered. The horncore belongs to the taphonomic group of larger, heavier elements from the bonebed. So far, no other ceratopsian elements have been identified from the bonebed. Ceratopsids from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of southern Alberta include Anchiceratops, Arrhinoceratops, Eotriceratops, and Pachyrhinosaurus. The size, proportions, and gently anterolaterally procurving morphology of the horncore indicates that it is from a chasmosaurine ceratopsid. There is weak morphological information to suggest that it may represent Anchiceratops ornatus, which is the most common chasmosaurine at this stratigraphic level. The base of the specimen has been hollowed out by a sinus system, which in conjunction with its large size indicates it is probably from a mature animal. The rarity of ceratopsian remains in this and other hadrosaur bonebeds suggests horned dinosaurs were excluded from anywhere that was occupied by herds of large numbers of Edmontosaurus.

A fossilized aroid infructescence, Albertarum pueri gen.nov. et sp.nov., of Late Cretaceous (Late Campanian) age from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of southern Alberta, Canada

2005 ◽  
Vol 83 (6) ◽  
pp. 591-598 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Bogner ◽  
Georgia L Hoffman ◽  
Kevin R Aulenback
Keyword(s):  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
New Genus ◽  
Before Present ◽  
Delta Plain ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Absolute Age ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation ◽  
Axile Placentation

A fossilized aroid infructescence has been recovered from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in southern Alberta, Canada. Its stratigraphic position places it near the end of the Campanian Stage of the Late Cretaceous Epoch, at an absolute age of approximately 72 million years before present. It is one of the few Cretaceous aroid fossils known at present, and it represents a new genus of Araceae, here named Albertarum. The infructescence is fertile to the apex, and the flowers must have been bisexual. Flowers bear remains of a long, attenuated style, surrounded by a perigone of six tepals. A fracture reveals ellipsoid seeds with a thick, ribbed testa and traces of a raphe, arranged in groups of three. The gynoecium was probably trilocular with one ovule per locule, and ovules were anatropous, probably with apical–parietal or axile placentation. Bisexual, perigoniate flowers occur in subfamilies Gymnostachydoideae, Orontioideae, Pothoideae, Monsteroideae, and Lasioideae, no genera of which have ribbed seeds, but the infructescence and stylar region of Albertarum resemble those of extant Symplocarpus (Orontioideae). The Horseshoe Canyon Formation was deposited in a delta plain setting, and like Symplocarpus, Albertarum probably grew in a wetland environment.Key words: fossil, Araceae, Symplocarpus, Albertarum, Limnobiophyllum, Mayoa.

Hadrosaurid (Edmontosaurus) bonebeds from the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (Horsethief Member) at Drumheller, Alberta, Canada: geology, preliminary taphonomy, and significance

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 642-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Evans ◽  
David A. Eberth ◽  
Michael J. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Coastal Plain ◽  
Debris Flows ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
Size Sorting ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Large Groups ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation ◽  
Organic Fragment ◽  
Tooth Marks

Three monodominant hadrosaurid bonebeds in the Horsethief Member of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation (uppermost Campanian) in southern Alberta, Canada, are documented. Each bonebed is hosted by a decimetre-thick deposit of poorly sorted and graded organic-fragment-rich mudstone. These fossil deposits are interpreted as having been carried and deposited by debris flows or hyperconcentrated mass sediment flows initiated by overbank flooding from local channels. Each bonebed is dominated (>50% of identifiable elements) by the disarticulated to occasionally associated remains of hadrosaurine hadrosaurids, inferred to be Edmontosaurus regalis. The majority of hadrosaurid elements at two of the sites (Bleriot Ferry and Prehistoric Park) are from large, presumably adult-sized individuals, whereas the majority of elements from the Fox Coulee site are from subadults and juveniles. Fossil elements from all the sites exhibit similar taphonomic signatures suggestive of a high degree of biostratinomic modification including: (i) thorough disarticulation of carcasses, (ii) a large amount of breakage, (iii) modest amounts of size sorting, and (iv) minimum to modest occurrences of abrasion, and scratch and tooth marks. These signatures indicate that carcasses were exposed for significant amounts of time on the floodplain, where they rotted, were scavenged and trampled, and were exposed to moving water prior to final burial. The size of each bonebed together with the density of bones suggest that the biocoenoses comprised large groups of hadrosaurids, and bone size distributions suggest the possibility of age-segregated populations. The monodominant nature of the assemblages combined with homogenous taphonomic signatures within and between sites suggests that these bonebed assemblages are best interpreted as the result of mass kills rather than attrition, with recurring tropical storm-induced coastal-plain flooding postulated as a likely mechanism for what killed and eventually buried these dinosaurs.

Stratigraphy of the Danek Bonebed (Upper Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation, central Alberta) and correlations with strata in the Drumheller and Grande Prairie regions

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (11) ◽  
pp. 975-981 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Eberth ◽  
Phil R. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Faunal Assemblage ◽  
The North ◽  
Southern Alberta ◽  
North Slope Of Alaska ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Geologic Time Scale ◽  
Assemblage Zone ◽  
Considerable Work ◽  
Horseshoe Canyon Formation

Although considerable work has been conducted on the stratigraphy and dinosaur assemblages of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation of southern Alberta, equivalent strata and assemblages in central Alberta remain poorly understood. Data from the Danek Bonebed (Edmonton, Alberta) are beginning to fill this gap. The bonebed occurs 4 m above the #9 Big Island Coal Seam. This stratigraphic position lies just below the middle of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in the Edmonton region, and also lies below a thick, stratigraphically significant non-coaly interval that is expressed throughout central and southern Alberta. The stratigraphic position of the Danek Bonebed equates best with the uppermost Horsethief Member of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation in the Drumheller region and the upper part of Unit 4 of the Wapiti Formation in the Grande Prairie region. In both Drumheller and Grande Prairie, the correlated position of the bonebed underlies a zone of marine transgression (Drumheller Marine Tongue), which, in turn, includes the Campanian–Maastrichtian boundary. In the context of Geologic Time Scale 2004, we infer a late Campanian age of 71.0–71.3 Ma for the bonebed. The Danek’s dinosaurian assemblage is limited taxonomically, but compares well with the Edmontosaurus regalis – Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis fossil assemblage zone in the Drumheller region. We propose that a mega-herbivore faunal assemblage, characterized by Edmontosaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus, extended continuously across the climatically wet coastal plain of latest Campanian southern and central Alberta, and likely extended northwest into the North Slope of Alaska, where it persisted into the early Maastrichtian.

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